Sin-clairs

The eclair - a lovely French pastry which seems terribly difficult to achieve but as I found out, not that hard at all.

What i love about eclairs is that there's a science behind it all. It's using the very act of steaming to create that delicate crater in the middle of your pastry. The french call this art Pate A Choux (pa-teh-ah-shoe) and this is the same method used in cream puffs and ice cream sandwiches.

Basically, what we do is introduce water into the recipe and while the batter bakes, it steams, creating a hole right in the middle of the pastry. That hole, my friends, can be filled with anything. Strawberry jam, chocolate, ice-cream - ooo lah lah.

This is why, I stress, we need to use a very high protein flour, because proteins soak up more liquids. This recipe calls for Bread Flour - by all means stick to this.

Because I'm a traditionalist at heart, I stuck to the fairly traditional Chocolate Eclairs with Vanilla Cream Filling. Oh, there's a cheat in my recipe too ;)

Ingredients
(makes 30 eclairs)

Eclairs

• 160 grams Bread Flour
• 6 Tablespoons Butter Or Fat Spread
• 1 Tablespoon Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 4 whole Eggs
• 2 whole Egg Whites

Vanilla Cream [CHEAT ALERT!]

• 1 box Vanilla Pudding (about 15 Servings)

Chocolate Frosting

• 1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• 1 teaspoon Vegetable Or Cooking Oil
• 1 cup Water

Now, down to the dirty

Eclairs
Preheat oven to 375˚F.

1. In a saucepan on medium heat, melt butter and water.

2. Add in flour (all at once), sugar and salt.

3. Turn heat to low and stir vigorously until everything is combined and have become a paste. You will know when it is ready when the paste is no longer sticky to the touch.

4. Let the paste cool – it is ready when you can stick a (clean!) finger in comfortably. This will take about 5 – 7 minutes.

5. One by one, mix in the eggs into the paste. You should use a electric mixer for this.

6. Eventually, your paste should turn into a nice smooth batter. Test the readiness by holding up your whisk and if the batter falls away gently, it is done.

7. Pipe the batter into little rounded strips onto a baking sheet or grease tray.

8. Now, place the tray into the oven and turn it up to 425˚F. Bake for 6 – 7 minutes.

9. Now rotate the tray 180˚ and bake for 6 – 7 minutes.

10. Turn down the oven to 325˚F and continue to bake them for 10 minutes and rotate the tray 180˚ every 5 minutes.

11. Out of the oven they come – when they are cool enough to handle but still warm, use a paring knife or skewer to poke a small hole at the end of the eclair.

Vanilla Cream Filling
1. Make your filling by mixing the vanilla pudding with 3/4 of the liquid that is actually needed.

Frosting
1. Melt chocolate chips with vegetable oil on a water bath (bowl over a pot of boiling water).

Putting it together
1. Place vanilla pudding into a piping bag.

2. Using a star tip, pierce the eclair via the hole made by your paring knife or skewer and pipe in the pudding.

3. Dip the entire top of the eclair into your melted chocolate.

Voila! Enjoy!

Posted in: chocolate, eclairs, moderate